The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State
University Libraries, Fargo, is pleased to announce publication
of its newest book, The Dark Abyss of Exile: A Story of Survival,
by Ida Bender, translation from German to English by Laurel Anderson
and William Wiest, with Carl Anderson.

Ida Bender relates her story of deportation and exile to Siberia
at the beginning of World War II in 1941. She and her family lived
in the lower Volga region of the Soviet Union, along with 400,000
other ethnic Germans. These people were descendants of 18th Century
settlers invited by Czarina Catherina II from western Europe to
convert barren Russian steppes into productive farmland. Bender
and fellow ethnic Germans were subjected to inhumane conditions
in Soviet concentration camps. Many persons perished from starvation,
freezing, and brutal treatment. Ida Bender, who also describes acts
of kindness by some Russians, expresses the hope her book will help
replace hatred with understanding between peoples. The book includes
photographs and sketches depicting Volga German village scenes and
life in the forced labor camps.

Ida Bender writes in the Foreword: "I wanted my children to have
a happy, peaceful life, while they still were young. I wanted to
spare them the difficulties I had experienced. They had inherited
the stigma of being damned, exiled Germans. Even as children, they
were considered second-class citizens, scoffed and cursed. They
were persecuted because of their ethnicity. I took it as my assignment
to explain to them why they were in that position, while at the
same time I did not want to stir up hate in their hearts. I wanted
them not to be ashamed of their parents or their people."

"Later, one of my grandchildren asked me why we Germans in the
Soviet Union were treated as second-class citizens. I told all my
grandchildren they deserved to have human dignity, which had been
taken away by the Soviet government. I taught them war should not
be a part of life, that one person should not be violent toward
another, that one people should not be violent to another people.
That is what I wish for all people on earth, and to that end I have
recorded my experiences for those who follow me."

Ida Bender shares a compelling story of her life. She writes:
"We had been loyal citizens for two centuries, had given our all
to make the land productive, had believed in the idea of a perfect
society when the Communists took over. The only path left for us
was a struggle for survival, trying to keep our family together
and out of harm's way."